READING'S black stars have come out in support of John Mackie, insisting he is not a racist and declaring the sorry incident will galvanise team spirit.

Mackie was forced to make a public apology yesterday after aiming a racist comment at Sheffield United's Carl Asaba following a bust-up at the end of the 2-0 Nationwide Division 1 defeat.

The two had clashed off the ball when former Royals striker Asaba appeared to catch Mackie, and the feud simmered over in the tunnel area after the game.

But Mackie has received the backing of both Anthony Rougier and John Salako, who believe the incident has been blown out of proportion.

Both voluntarily joined Mackie, who donated two weeks' wages towards the Football Association's Kick Racism out of Football campaign, in a hastily-arranged press conference at the stadium yesterday.

Salako, who was born in Nigeria but made five appearances for England, said: "I'm certainly not condoning what John said. He's held his hands up and knows he's done wrong.

"Unfortunately Carl caught John. You try and sort the situation out but it can boil over.

"We're all capable of saying things in the heat of the moment whether it's about red hair or the colour of your skin, but it's not really meant.

"Racism is a deep hatred of creed or colour, but that is not the situation here. We know John is not a racist.

"It's been blown out of all proportion. Political correctness is getting a bit ridiculous. This is not a case of racism and hopefully we can move on."

Trinidad and Tobago international Rougier also threw his backing behind 26-year-old Mackie. The attacker said: "John is a great friend of mine. He's the first to kiss me on the head when I score a goal.

"He is a solid guy, a champion guy and I'm here to support him.

"You have ups and downs as a footballer and John has always been one of the first to give me encouragement.

"I'm not saying what he did was right, and he understands that and he's willing to face the consequences.

"There is absolutely no tensions between us because of this. In fact it has probably made the players here more understanding of each other."

Mackie WILL play Saturday against Nottingham Forest, and Reading manager Alan Pardew stressed the decision to take disciplinary action quickly was not done just because Sheffield United had made an official complaint.

However, since Mackie's public apology the Blades have decided not to take the matter any further.

He could, though, still face action from the Football Association.

Pardew said: "We were in the process of investigating the matter ourselves and by no means are we just reacting to Sheffield's complaint.

"We knew there was an incident and we wanted to get to the bottom of it. ohn was remorseful afterwards.

"He came to me straight and wanted to deal with it as quickly as we could.

"I rang Carl (Asaba). He's a friend of mine and an honest lad. He's actually been very supportive.

"He understands John was very pumped up and didn't mean it."

Despite the support shown to Mackie from his team-mates and Asaba, Pardew admits the incident will cast a shadow on Reading.

He added: "It's unfortunate that a club like ourselves has been given a racial slur.

"We have a lot of black and asian players and we're a big supporter of the Kick Racism Out of Football campaign.

"We want to promote ethnic groups. There is a big ethnic group here in Reading and we want more of those groups coming to games."